Jake Wray News Editor ngineering students at Douglas College may have an easier time transferring to some BC universities. Douglas College offers a one-year engineering certificate and a two-year engineering diploma. Those students can now “seamlessly” transfer to UVIC or SFU to complete an engineering degree thanks to new agreements between the universities and Douglas College, according to a press release. The agreements, which came into effect in September, allow students who completed the certificate or diploma programs at Douglas to transfer to UVIC or SFU as second- year engineering students. Brian Chapell, dean of science and technology at Douglas College, said in the press release that UVIC and SFU are great options for Douglas College students. “Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria offer two of the most modern and competitive engineering degree programs in the College unveils new transfer aGr 7 dL. d . I CT "TT..1TT\7) ro "J Pr + province,” he said in the release. “By entering into these transfer agreements, Douglas students will have more options available to help them achieve their academic and career goals.” SFU and Douglas College also offer a joint degree program that allows students to earn a degree while studying at both institutions simultaneously. The new engineering transfer agreement is not connected to that program. While Douglas College engineering students can transfer to UVIC or SFU after earning the certificate in one year, the press release said, they can gain Douglas College upgrades internet infrastructure > New fibre connections installed, WiF1 upgrades planned Jake Wray News Editor Colten Kamlade Staff Reporter Do College is upgrading its internet connection. A new fibre-optic connection was installed at the New Westminster campus this fall, and the Coquitlam campus is set to receive a new fibre- optic connection by the end of 2017. CEIT is also planning upgrades to the WiFi infrastructure at both campuses, which may be welcome news to some students who said the wireless internet connection at Douglas is inconsistent. lan McLeod, chief information officer with Douglas College, said in an interview with the Other Press that both campuses used to share one 500 mbps internet connection, but approximately one year ago the college upgraded to a temporary service that provided a1 gbps connection to each campus. “We essentially quadrupled our pipe size to the internet,” he said. Now, that temporary service has been replaced in New Westminster by a long-term 1 gbps connection to BridgeNet, a fibre-optic network owned by the City of New Westminster. The Coquitlam campus is set to transition from the temporary connection to a1gbps connection provided by the Coquitlam Optical Network Corporation, which is affiliated with the City of Coquitlam. McLeod said the Coquitlam campus will transfer connections “within the next month or so.” One advantage of the city-affiliated connections is that the college won't have to pay a monthly lease fee for the connection, according to McLeod. In fact, he said, the cost of the new connections has been covered entirely by grants from the BC ministry of advanced education and Canaire, a non-profit digitial infrastructure organization. “Tt’s a sweet deal for Douglas because we don’t pay,’ McLeod said. McLeod said now that the new connections are in place, upgrading the speed will bea straightforward process. The current 1 gbps connections are sufficient for now, he said, but the infrastructure is in place to upgrade to a10 gbps connection, if needed. “Basically we have access to dedicated fibre optic circuits and, even though we're currently going to run at 1 gig, fibre optic circuits can run at [10 gbps or 100 gbps, ] so the growth potential is way better for us,” he said, adding that an upgrade likely won't be needed for some time. “We watch the [internet usage] volume pretty carefully every month. We're at no more than half the current [1 gbps] capacity.” CEIT has also proposed upgrades to WiFi infrastructure at both campuses. The upgrade budget has yet to be approved by the college, but McLeod said he is confident it will be approved. He said the two campuses have in total approximately 200 wireless “access points,” which are pieces of hardware that broadcast WiFi signals. CEIT hopes to upgrade the speed and capacity of those access points. “Assuming we get our funding approval, for next fiscal [year] we are going to replace all of the current access points with high- volume, high-speed access points that run in both spectrums—the 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz—so we'll be able to improve on our high volume and high traffic areas,” McLeod said. The upgrade plan also includes implementing additional access points where the WiFi signal is currently weak, according to McLeod. “(Signals from] access points are sort of like a cloud, a three-dimensional globe, if you like, so there’s always places that have less connectivity and little holes and pockets where there may be no connectivity if you're behind concrete walls and interesting places,” he said. McLeod said his department is always looking for comments from students about areas where the WiFi might be weak. The best way to provide feedback, he said, is to contact the CEIT help desk or talk to a students- helping-students volunteer. The Other Press interviewed 10 students at the New Westminster campus about their experience using the internet at Douglas College. Many said extra experience by taking the two-year engineering diploma at Douglas College. Allan Majdanac, engineering program co-ordinator at Douglas College, said in the press release that taking the diploma program can give students a leg up when they apply for co-op jobs. “The diploma provides [students] with valuable practical skills in fabrication and prototyping,” he said in the release. “These skills can provide an advantage for students when applying for co-op jobs as part of their future engineering degree program.” Photo by Analyn Cuarto the WiFi connection can be unreliable. “It’s pretty inconsistent, where sometimes I'll connect like that and sometimes it will reboot and it’ll take me all day to connect,” said Brandon King, 18, who studies sports science at Douglas. Jeremy Truong, 20, who studies music therapy at Douglas, said the WiFi sometimes has a bad signal or seems to get overloaded. “Tt disconnects a lot,” he said. “Tt’s not awful but it’s not great. Different places are better,” said Chanelle Callahan, 21, who takes general studies courses at Douglas. Mamta Sharma, 18, who studies psychology at Douglas, said logging in to computers in the library can be a dreadfully slow process. “Tt’s so slow. [It takes] five minutes and there’s a line-up of people waiting,” she said. Jonathan Coté, mayor of New Westminster, said in a press release that the City is pleased Douglas College is using a BridgeNet connection. “We're excited to connect Douglas College to our BridgeNet fibre optic network,” he said in the press release. “T look forward to seeing how the college uses BridgeNet to improve the educational services they deliver.” The City of New Westminster launched the BridgeNet network in 2016.